38 PER.SONAL HISTOR. Y LEARNING-II we interrupted Mr. Baqir-or ne- glected to warn him of the approach- ing steps of Mr. Khanna, the princi- pal-he was not above using it on us. He aimed his blows at our hands or arms. He did not have very good aim, and more often than not he missed. When he did score a hit, however, the skin would sting and burn, and lately he had redoubled the caning of us Hindu boys. His blows did make me feel meek and servile "We Muslims are natural rulers," he was saying. "We ruled the Hin- dus for hundreds of years under the Moguls. We have always trounced them, and we will trounce them now. But beware of the cunning, caste-rid- den lot [rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat]. Be- ware of the infidel. He skulks like a jackal, but he's a dog with a fox's na- ture. " Mr. Baqir shouted at the fanwallah "A little harder, boy!" and puffed at his biri while apparently listening for the faster movement of the fan. The fanwallah pulled and relaxed the rope a bit more quickly, but he bare- ly managed to stir the smoke-filled aIr. "Semual, how many Muslims origi- nally came here as conquerors?" Mr. Baqir asked. Semual didn t know the answer, and Mr. Baqir went around the room. N one of us had any idea. "A handful," Mr. Baqir announced triumphantly. "But today there are ninety million Muslims in India- almost one-fourth of the population. And it has al1 been done by conver- sion-by the strength of the meat- eating faith of Allah. The jackals, the dogs!" Mr. Baqir's cane fidgeted in his hand as he inveighed against the Hindus INTIl\lA 1 IONS OF P ARTI rlON " B OYS'" our Muslim teacher Mr. Baqir said one day in June, 1946, at the Emerson Institute for the Blind, "tell me, what is the Hindu religion? Do Hindus have one god, like Allah? Do they have a prophet, like Muhammad? Do they have a holy book, like the Koran? No, there are as many gods, as many proph- ets, as many holy books as there are Hindus, which is to say" - he tapped his cane on the table, rat-a-tat-"Hin- dus have no gods [rat-a-tat], no proph- ets [rat-a-tat-tat], no holy books. They will worship any thing-a cow, a monkey, a stone. It's not a religion at all but a jungle of lowly supersti- tions. Hindus have always eaten grass and have always been meek and ser- vile, while we Muslims have always eaten beef and have always been bold and domineering." I didn't like Mr. Baqir's attacks on Hindus, and several times I cried out "I don't eat grass!" and "I may not eat beef, but I eat mutton!" But then I stopped interrupting, because I didn't like the nervous sound of his cane; it was kept wet and supple, and any time I FIRST met Sohan at a family gathering in Mehta Gulli, across the road from our house. He was sev- enteen-five years older than I was- and was an acquaintance of one of my cousin-brothers He had a meek voice, like a boy servant, but his words were bold. Every time someone spoke to him in English, he replied in Punjabi. Yet he announced that he was studying medicine at Sir Ganga Ram Medical College. "You must know English, if you're studying medicine," Sister U mi said. "It's not that I don't know the for- eigners' tongue," So- han said. "I choose to speak my mother tongue." "Let's hear what your English sounds like!" someone cried. "You'll have to speak good English to practice medicine," someone else said. Sohan was not both- ered. He asked Sister Vmi where she went to school. She told him. "You go to a con- vent school," he said in Punjabi, slowly, as if he were explaining a difficult point to her. "You are taught there always to speak in English. They tell you practice makes perfect, or some such thing. Yet when you come to your mother, who doesn't know English, and she asks you in Punjabi 'Would you ___ r , -...( -;:: "- \/, / - r>d: (-f'-? / t" - (' ( -( ('} c C; (",C \o cY é"-- / 1.\) (r / I "I \. I "-" -- \ ý t---J. -- 4.,.--.-"", '--.. J-', ( ---- ). - /,p. 1 , "0- ý"'- , \ -,1' rr( r---- / '} -- .- i <? (' ,.- ^'_ '> \-__ L .--- \. _ "'-..---__ L-> . l \ 3 ..J -; .......... . -t=- - - -/" '- '-- ^ L 1...-' r-x..- .......... -<.. !;:"'" '- r t/ I ( \....// y ,kiT rr- ! 9( , / I { .... -.... .-? - P _ - ccy ou're terrific, Katia. You think like 'The New York Review of Books' and look like 'V ogue.' "